This site has an ongoing topic of my Dads' 8th Army Air Corps service during WW2. There is duplication of some photos and statements. I condensed these posts from another Blog I write to contain everything in one space. The existance of this Blog has brought forth the reuniting of old comrades. This is a Tribute to all those who have sacrificed for our country.

Crew # 555

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1st. LT. J. William Smith

Friday, November 18, 2016

13th. Air Force, 5th. Bomb Group, 394th. Bomb Squadron.

I've been attempting to research my late Uncle Jim's WW 2 Bomb Group /
Squadron but am not finding as much data available for the for the
Pacific Theater Bomb Groups. The European Theater Groups seem to have
been better documented than their Pacific counterparts.

I found the fate of the plane pictured above:
Serial # 44-40536 (5th BG) lost Jan 5, 1945, SW Pacific.
Missing Air Crew Report #11532
Scrolling through the Army Air Corps Aircraft Data Base I found that
large numbers of 5th. Bomb Group B-24's were lost during the S/SW
Pacific Campaign.

I have not been able to find any specifics on Uncle Jim's service, other
than he flew numerous combat missions and was with the 394th. Squadron
until the end of the War. Jim passed away a few years ago and never
spoke about his WW2 experiences with me.

13th Air Force
Constituted as 13th Air Force on December 14, 1942 and activated January 13, 1943.

The 13th AF served in the South and Southwest Pacific.

It was also known as the Cactus Airforce

Constituted as Thirteenth AF on 14 Dec 1942. Activated in New Caledonia
on 13 Jan 1943. Served in the South Pacific and, later, Southwest
Pacific, participating in the Allied drive north and west from the
Solomons to the Philippines. Remained in the Philippines, as part of Far
East Air Forces, after the war. Transferred, without personnel and
equipment, to Okinawa in Dec 1948 and back to the Philippines in May
1949.

Insigne. On a blue disc, bordered golden orange, a pair of golden orange
wings surmounted in base by a white star charged with a red disc; all
below the Arabic numeral "13" in white. (Approved 18 Jan 1944.)

A miraculous story about a 394th. Squadron Survivor:

Lt. Pete Konduros

B-24 Bombardier / mid-air explosion survivor Pete Gus Konduros was born
in Anderson, South Carolina on April 27th, 1922. He was a student at
Clemson University in South Carolina when Pearl Harbor was attacked. As
an ROTC cadet at Clemson he was encouraged to remain in the ROTC program
and to continue his coursework. In 1943, during his junior year, he was
inducted into the Army as an infantryman. Through sheer luck and
determination Pete managed to get transferred into the US Army Air Corp
where he was trained as a bombardier in B-24’s. Pete was assigned to the
394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bomb Group, 13th Air Force and was shipped off
to fight in the Pacific Theatre in mid-1945.

Pete had several brushes with death during his training and also while
flying over ninety hours of combat during nine missions over enemy held
territory. Pete was nearly shot down in an earlier mission but it was
the events that transpired while flying his 9th mission that would
change his life forever. It was during this 9th mission that Pete
Konduros was quite literally blown out of his bomber when a flight of
B-24’s on the same bombing run inadvertently dropped their ordinance
into Pete’s bomber formation flying below.

The results were catastrophic. Two 1000 lbs. bombs with 0.10 second
delayed fuses ripped through Pete’s B-24, exploded directly beneath it
and, in an instant, Pete found himself in the forward section of the
nose of the B-24. The rest of the plane was vaporized. Nothing remained
of Pete’s B-24 except for the small section of the nose which he found
himself in. Immediately Pete realized that he didn’t have his parachute
on and his movement was limited by the centrifugal forces that were
being generated as the nose section of his B-24 twirled and tumbled
towards the Pacific Ocean below.

In what Pete describes as a miracle, he managed to get his flak vest
off, his parachute on and, during the last precious moments before the
nose section of the B-24 he was trapped in crashed into the ocean, he
was able to get out and pull the ripcord. Pete was the lone survivor.
All nine of his fellow crew members perished. He survived the explosion
but he was not out of trouble yet. Still stunned from his ordeal, he
bobbed in the water just offshore of Zamboanga, Mindanao in the
Philippines. From his vantage point he could see, hear and feel the
bombs from his flight of B-24’s exploding on a Japanese held airfield
that was being targeted. He was just a few hundred yards away from the
action and it didn’t take long for Pete to realize that by staying there
he risked being a casualty of his own exploding bombs. Also, to be
taken prisoner by the Japanese may have resulted in death. He decided to
swim away from the shoreline and distance himself from the maelstrom.
Pete swam through the wreckage of his own plane, he swam through the
bodies of his fallen comrades and when he felt he was far enough away
from the shoreline, he stopped and waited to be rescued…he hoped. Pete
was fortunate enough to be spotted by a seaplane from the USS Phoenix.

Under covering fire from US Navy Corsairs, the seaplane rescued him and
transported him back to the ship where he spent several days resting and
recuperating.

Pete was delivered back to his base on Bougainville but, by then, the
war in the Pacific was winding down and Pete was released from active
duty in the US Army Air Corp on October 28th, 1945. After the war Pete
went back to school, finished getting his degree and moved to Houston to
work as a stock broker and started a family. Over time, photos of
Pete’s rescue and, amazingly, his B-24 being destroyed by friendly fire
were made available to him. They stand in mute testament to the 9th
mission the Pete survived over sixty years ago.

1 comment:

My Dad Flew 43 missions in various B-24's as a top turret gunner and probably was in some of the formations of other squadrons. I have a lot of his memoirs and pictures. He was part of the 72nd Squadron, Crew 207, 5th Bomb Group Heavy.